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Corsair HX1000W Review

Closer Look (The Power Supply):

The rear of the power supply showing the air exhaust grill, large on/off switch which should be easy to find when you attempt to switch off when sat in front of your PC and the IEC main input connector. The front of the power supply showing the modular cable connectors, exit port, and grommet for the hard wired cables. The modular connectors are all labeled so that you know which 12V rail you are using. The black connectors are reserved for the peripherals/SATA power cables and the blue for PCI-E graphic card auxillary power cables. Don't misinterpret the 12V rails as being associated to one colour because they aren't and in combination with the internal connection of the hard wired cables Corsair has attempted to distribute the load evenly between the two 12V rails.

Identical HX1000W labels on both sides of the power supply enclosure.

Specification label on the top and the large 140mm black cooling fan on the underside.

The first photograph shows the HX1000W hard wired cables which include the motherboard 24 pin connector, two 6+2 pin PCI-E auxillary power connectors, and a 4+4 pin EPS12V motherboard connector each with a cable length of approximately 60cm (24"). The second photograph shows the large selection of modular cables supplied with the HX1000W. It is worth noting that not all these cables can be used at the same time but do still offer, when selected to suit the intended system, a wide variety of options with plenty of connectors. The modular 6 and 8 pin PCI-E connectors are the same length as the hard wired cables with a single connector on each of the 4 pin molex, SATA power, and FDD power connector cables start with a length of 35cm (14") to the first connector and intermediate connector spacing of 10cm (4").

The 140mm ball bearing cooling fan (Model D14BH-12) is by Yate Loon Electronics Co. Ltd. The fan is 12VDC at 0.7A and rated for 2800RPM, 140CFM and with a 48.5dB noise level. I will be very surprised to see it running at this speed but we will find out later. The first thing I noticed when I opened up the HX1000W was two main Nippon Chemicon 420VDC 330uF smoothing capacitors. The HX1000W is two separate switched mode power supplies (0V lines connected together of course!) producing two independent 12V rails with the 3V3 rail derived from one and the 5V0 rail from the other via DC to DC convertors. This would explain why the specification for this unit is different from others I have already tested. Instead of the more usual combined 3V3 and 5V0 maximum power (W) and combined 12V maximum power (W) the specification for the HX1000W gives a combined maximum power of 500W each for the combined 12V1+5V0 and 12V2+3V3.

Photographs showing side views of the power supplies with the insulating plastic sheet folded out of the way.

Everything inside the Corsair HX1000W is very tidy as you can see in the view of the back panel modular cable connector panel. Everything is sleeved where possible and silicon rubber compound as been applied to capacitors, coils, and transformers were possible in an attempt to stop vibration and oscillation noise. All the capacitors I could see are of Japanese manufacture and rated at 105°C as stated in the literature, far better than the commonly fitted 85°C rated variety.

Overall a very well put together power supply using quality components.